


A Place in the Rain

by PeniferPenguin



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Oneshot, but here's to kristanna!, especially since I didn't have a friend check it and I was tired while editing, so I apologize in advance for this hot pile of turd, this is my first fanfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:41:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23154211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeniferPenguin/pseuds/PeniferPenguin
Summary: After being caught out in the rain, Anna finds that a kind middle-aged lady and her son are willing to help her.
Relationships: Anna/Kristoff (Disney)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	A Place in the Rain

**Author's Note:**

> After being an avid stalker of the internet for a couple of months, I thought, "why did give back a little bit to the community, if not just this once?" And so this thing was born! I am by no means a writer. My strength in writing lies in my abilities in crafting essays in my high school classes, so don't be afraid to correct me. Narrative writing is a whole other monster, and it's what makes me respect fanfiction creators. So this goes as a gift for them, even if I am not bold enough to list their names. They'd probably be wondering "who the heck is this person anyway?" But anyways, I hope you do all enjoy.

It wasn’t like she wanted to be soaking wet, really. It was her sister’s fault for always ignoring her. Anna really didn’t know what happened between them; they were close before. She still remembers playing dolls in the drawing room with Elsa or going sledding down the snowy hills during the winter. But nowadays, she keeps to herself, especially after the accident with their parents. If Elsa doesn’t want to play, then so be it. She could find another friend to play with her.

What she didn’t expect was the weather to change so quickly. One second it was clear, if not a bit cloudy, the next the sky opened up to let loose a torrent of rain. So here she was, her feet squelching with every step, with her cotton dress clinging to her small ten-year-old frame. Gerda would be worried, she was sure. She always worried ever since her parents died.

She was a little ways away from their small village square when it started to pour. Maybe if she wasn’t so busy sulking about her sister, she would’ve noticed the clouds getting heavier with rain. Stupid Elsa. Stupid rain. There were just a few houses about, all with thatched roofs and wattle and daub walls. Faintly on the wind, she could hear laughter. It came from a house a little longer and wider than the rest. From its closed wooden shutters, little slivers of warm light slipped through. Surely they wouldn’t turn away a little girl shivering in this weather now, would they? At least, Anna hoped so.

The small wooden step to their front door groaned under her weight. The small overhang from the roof offered some, but little protection. She raised her hand, hesitating, before she let her knuckles rap against the door.

It opened to reveal a tall, but lanky boy, maybe two to three winters older than her, with blond hair that was just barely long enough to just sweep over his eyes.

“Um, hi?” It was slightly unnerving, him standing there watching her. He offered no response except for the slight squint of his eyes at her greeting.

“Kristoff, don’t just stand there, who’s at the door?”

Just then a squat middle-aged lady with salt and pepper hair came up from behind the boy. Her face was kind, whether it was from the soft lines of her face or her slight smile, she didn’t know.

“Oh! You poor thing, you must be freezing, being out in the elements like that, come inside. Quickly now!” She opened the door wider, seemingly uncaring about the rain that escaped into her home.

“Kristoff, don’t just stand there, get the towels, quick!” The boy, or Kristoff, she should say, turned without a word and retreated behind a small divider. Meanwhile, the lady she assumed was his mother pushed her towards the fire in the middle of the room. She sat her down on a low wooden box by the fire pit’s edge. After taking off her shoes and socks, the lady began to unravel her messy braids.

“Poor girl, your hair is just a bit tangled. Here, I have a small wooden comb tucked in my apron somewhere.” A bit tangled was a bit of an understatement in Anna’s opinion. She kept her hair in braids for a reason. If she let it hang loose most of the time, her hair would be knotted mess. The lady’s hands proved to be gentle and patient with the knots. There was only a slight tugging sensation against her scalp, a nice change from her quick impatient pulls when she had to brush her own hair.

“Thank you, Missus. I’m sorry for bothering you, truly.”

“Oh, don’t you worry, dearie.” Her words came with a small pat against her cheek from behind before she resumed working on her hair. “But you don’t have to call me Missus, Bulda is just fine. Now tell me,” she said, “what’s your name?”

“Anna. I’m Anna, and I live in this cottage on the other side of the village. It’s bigger than this house, Miss–, uh, I mean Mrs. Bulda,” she stuttered, “But your place is lovely too! Actually it’s quite more homey feely, you know, in a cozy little way. Um, thank you.” Right at the end of her spiel the boy named Kristoff came back and handed her a towel. She felt her face erupt in splotches of red.

Anna quickly bit her tongue, she knew she tended to ramble a lot. She was once teased for it by her father. He would always say, “oh little Anna, you always have something to say don’t you?”, and then he would ruffle her hair a bit while she giggled and bend down to kiss her forehead.

“Why thank you, I think it’s quite lovely too,” Bulda said as she plucked the towel from her grasp and used it to gently ruffle her ginger locks. “Now, your hair may be slightly frizzy after this, but it’ll dry faster. Come now, I might have a couple of dresses that might be your size. Kristoff isn’t my only child you know. Speaking of him, Kristoff! Watch the fire for a bit, and get some of the leftover soup ready!”

She was led to the other side of the divider that the boy disappeared behind earlier. There were two pallets topped with hay and straw with pillows on top. A stool in a corner held various items. A comb, hairpins, and a small round mirror. In a bucket beside the stool were towels and various rags, but it was the chest pushed to the side against the wall that Bulda had been looking for. There she opened it to reveal clothing of different colors and sizes.

“Now, we can’t be too loud. Pappie is most likely sleeping down in the basement.” She gestured wildly to a trapdoor in the ground at the corner opposite from the stool. “Here we are, this might fit you nicely.”

She pulled out a simple pale cornflower blue linen dress, a shade just slightly lighter than her own eyes. It was just a bit too big on her, but a leather band from the chest wrapped around her waist helped make it manageable. Bulda quickly braided her hair back into its normal twin braids and grabbed the mirror so Anna could see. With her nod of approval, she was brought back into the living room where a pot sat on a metal rack above the fire. The blonde boy was scooping soup into a small wooden bowl in his hands. Once she was sat back down again, he handed the bowl to her. 

Just then there was a bark coming from outside. The boy quickly looked up and went to open the door only to be tackled to the ground by a large brown mutt.

“Sven! Eww, you’re all wet. Hold on, boy.” He pushed the dog’s snout away from his face. His voice sounded disgusted, but the way the corners of his lips lifted by just the slightest amount gave him away. The dog, Sven, backed away, only to shake his fur and hit the boy with a shower of rain droplets from his wet coat. Her throat let out a giggle.

The sound of her quiet laughter brought the dog’s attention to the visitor in the room. His head snapped towards her and lowered its head to the ground, its feet spread wide apart. Anna slowly set the bowl to the ground and waved a hand at the dog.

“Hiya boy! Aren’t you a handsome wittle dog?”

With that greeting, the dog let go of any hesitation it had in exchange for the promise of head scratches and belly rubs. After a few pets behind his head, he flipped over to expose his belly to Anna. She was happy to oblige him in some belly rubs too.

“Don’t talk to Sven like that, he doesn’t like it.”

“Sven, is that your name?” Anna said, ignoring the boy’s comment, “You like belly rubs don’t you boy, don’t you?”

Sven let out a happy bark in response.

“Traitor,” said the boy in a huff.

“Now, I’ll leave you two younglings to it, I have to check up on Grand Pappie downstairs. And Kristoff,” said Bulda, “be nice to Anna now.”

“Yes, Ma.”

“Good, if the weather clears you can stay or leave, dearie. The sun should be out in no time. You don’t have to worry yourself about seeing me on your way out. It was nice meeting you dear.”

“You too, Mrs. Bulda. Thank you for having me.”

“Oh it was no problem dearie, take care.” And with that, she disappeared underneath the trap door and left the two alone.

Anna rubbed her bare feet against her leg, looking everywhere around the room but at him.

“You should eat your soup before it gets cold, or before Sven notices it”

“Oh, right.” She rubbed her hands along her skirt then bent to pick up the bowl again. It was vegetable soup. She raised the bowl to her lips and took a few sips. “It tastes really good by the way, thank you.”

“Thank my mother, she was the one who made it. I just helped prep.”

“Well, thank you anyways then.”

There was a pregnant pause as he went to fetch some more soup for Sven.

“Your name is Kristoff, right?” she asked.

“No, it’s Christopher.”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to get your name wrong,” Anna quickly responded, “I just could’ve sworn your mother said–”

“No, it’s fine, really.” The boy cleared his throat. “My name is actually Kristoff, I was just messing with you.”

“Oh.” There was another pause. She really should get more experience with social interaction, she thought, then it wouldn’t have to be so awkward. “My name is Anna, by the way.”

“I know, I heard you and my mother talking, with this house being one room and all.”

“Right.” 

Kristoff placed down the other bowl of soup so Sven could have some. As soon as the bowl touched the ground, Sven’s was happily gorging himself. He gave his dog a small scratch at the back of his ears as he went to rise up again.

“You have a nice dog by the way. We don’t have pets at my house.”

“Thanks.”

At that point, Sven had finished his meal and went to sit by Anna in the hopes that she might give him some. When Kristoff went to retrieve the leftover bowl to wash, she gave the rest of her soup to Sven. It wasn’t that the soup was bad, it was just that she had eaten before leaving the house anyway, and Gerda would be making dinner by now. As soon as he was done, she quickly grabbed the bowl from Sven and offered it to the boy. She looked out the window to see that it had stopped raining.

“I best be going now, I stayed out longer than I should have and Gerda might be worrying for me.”

“Whose Gerda?”

“An old family maid, but more of a mother now, I guess.”

“Oh.” Kristoff then turned to retrieve her shoes, socks, and dress that had been drying by the fire. “Here.”

“Thank you again!”

As he closed the door behind him, She couldn’t stop the smile that grew on her face.

* * *

As she returned home to her family’s cottage, she went to see if she could get a glass of water from the kitchen. Gerda was there cleaning the pots and pans used for making tonight's dinner. As she heard the sound of Anna’s steps against the hard wooden floor, she turned around quickly and let out a small gasp.

“Young lady, where have you been? I was worried that you got caught in the rain.” She enveloped Anna in a warm hug, her arms encircling her completely. “And where did you get that dress?”

“Oh, a family took me in when it started to pour, I’m fine now Gerda, thank you.”

“We’ll have to thank them later then, but for now, dinner. Do you want to see if Elsa might want to join us tonight?”

Anna pondered it for a moment, but nodded her head no. Gerda then gave a tray of food to Anna so that she may leave it outside her sister’s door. Going up the stairs, careful so that nothing will spill, she made her way towards Elsa’s room. There she paused outside the door and sat the tray down. She knocked softly.

“Elsa? I know you probably don’t want to come down for dinner, but there’s a tray out here for you, okay?” She waited for a response. When no answer came, she shuffled down the stairs with her head hung just a little lower.

When she arrived back in the kitchen, she asked, “Gerda, when we’re done with dinner, could you show me how to make those sugar cookies again?”

“Sure dear, what for?”

“Just as a thank you for the family that helped me earlier.” As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Gerda gave Anna a smile, and Anna gave her one of her own in return.


End file.
